Matt awoke from a dream that he immediately forgot.

Reluctantly, he stirred himself into life and got out of bed. The room was new and unfamiliar to him, and it took him a few sleepy seconds to remember where he was. But once he did, the memories came flooding back. The ferocious Number, the Professor, and the four other teenagers he was now sharing an apartment with.

It had taken surprisingly little arguing and persuading to convince Matt's parents to allow him to move out. His parents rarely saw him anyway, and weren't honestly that fussed by the revelation. If anything, they were supportive of his supposedly sudden urge to live independently. More than anything, that made him quite depressed.

He thought about when the six of them had gone to visit Leah's parents, and how her mother and father had fought tooth and nail to stop her: pulled out every horror story, warning and plea they had to persuade her not to go. But she had been insistent, and had slowly and gently changed their minds with the help of Dan, Katie, and Professor Usur.

While they were arguing, he had questioned James about Leah's parents' behaviour, and his response had simply been, "Well, that's just what parents do. Why? Aren't yours like that?" He shook his head and explained that his parents were not around so much, and that they rarely took an interest in what he did. James paused for a moment, a faraway and almost wistful look in his eyes, before replying, "Yeah, I guess overprotective parents are a pain sometimes. Either way, you're lucky man."

Matt wasn't so sure about that.

He had no doubt that having parents as overprotective as Leah's could be a nuisance at times, but he didn't consider himself lucky with his parents, not for one second. Quite the opposite, he wished with all his heart that his parents had shown a little more anguish, a little more protectiveness, when he told them he was leaving. The fact that they hadn't made him feel kind of unwanted, and very sad.

After a few seconds of brooding, he glanced over at his bedside table, seeing his Deck lying there innocently enough, but for the card on top.

"Number 51: Dark Excalibur," he muttered.

That card had caused more pain and anguish than he liked to think about. And not just to him, but to everyone who had happened to be near him at the time. He had been sick and tired of the hero-worship of the accursed crowd that followed all of his duels, and the distinct lack of friendship among them, and that card had responded to that. It had warped his mind and made him believe it was a good idea to destroy everything and hurt many innocent people to scare them away from him. And it had worked… somewhat: there would be no more hero-worship, as all the people who ever admired him would now hate him for what he had done. Fate had a cruel sense of humour.

And it was hard for Matt to believe that this single piece of card – sitting on top of pile of almost-identical pieces of card – could cause all that. Tentatively, he reached out and placed his hand on top of the card. Nothing. No red glowing number etched itself onto the back of his hand. No invasive presence started ordering him to destroy everything. It was just an ordinary card, and would stay that way as long as he was wearing that metal band given to him by Professor Usur.

Still yawning, he put on a dressing gown and exited his room, leaving his Deck where it was. He stopped outside his door and surveyed his new world with mixed emotions.

He had stepped into the large communal area, which had a dining table, living room, and kitchen separated from the rest of the room by a countertop. There were three large leather sofas in front of a massive TV, and one of the walls was almost entirely glass, which allowed them to pull spare chairs up and overlook the entire city. Everything looked and smelled brand new. Along another of the walls were seven doors – five bedrooms and two bathrooms – one of which he'd just come out of. There was male singing coming from one of the bathrooms, and steam drifting from under the door.

Turning back, he spotted Katie fixing breakfast, with Dan attempting to help her and Leah laughing her head off at his feeble efforts.

"Dan, no!" Katie shouted. "For the last time, oil the pan before you put the bacon in."

"Sorry," he said sheepishly, as Katie snatched the pan off the cooker. "I've always bought my food, I've never learnt how to cook."

"You don't say," said Leah, who was sitting at the counter, still laughing at the pair of them and making absolutely no move to help either of them. "The only time you ever tried to cook anything was rice, and you almost blew up the microwave."

"Hey, those instructions weren't clear!" Dan replied, now attempting to crack eggs with a spatula. "When it said 'tear the top slightly', it did not specify how much."

Leah laughed again. "When it said 'tear the top slightly', it assumes that most people will understand that 'slightly' means more than zero-point-six nanometres."

Katie cracked up upon hearing this. "Oh, you should've seen it the first time I taught James how to make food. He was trying to make a smoothie, so he put everything in the blender, pushed the on button, it didn't work. So he fiddled with it for about a minute before realising that it wasn't switched on at the wall."

"Well, in all fairness, that's an easy mistake to make," said Dan, now using the same eggy spatula to mix the eggs, shell and all. "I mean, I've done it enough times. Everyone has." Leah nodded in agreement.

"Obviously," replied Katie, "but the idiot switched it on at the wall without bothering to hold the lid on." There was a slight pause, then everyone burst out laughing. "It's not funny! My kitchen was coated in the stuff. Well, at least some good came out of it... James did learn how to clean that day. Everyone laughed again. It was then that they became aware of Matt standing there watching them. "Ah, good morning Matt," Katie called cheerfully. "Come and help us prepare breakfast."

Matt grinned. "Actually, I think I prefer Leah's method of helping. You know, the whole sitting around, doing nothing, laughing at other people's misfortune thing..."

"Good call," said Dan, "I only got roped in here because I was out of the shower first... James, the luck so-and-so gets to escape this torture, while I'm stuck here trying to mix eggs that won't mix!"

He stirred with the spatula even faster. Katie grabbed his arm. "Maybe that's because you're using the wrong tool for the job." She laughed. "Try using a whisk."

Dan looked utterly perplexed. "What on earth is a whisk?"

Everyone laughed at his complete inaptitude and confusion, even Matt. It was true, happy laughter, and he was so shocked that he stopped abruptly. The others took no notice, and continued fixing breakfast. As Matt was deciding whether to try and help cook or run back into his room, a door opened behind him. Looking round, he saw James step out of a steamy bathroom, with a towel around his waist.

"Hey ya, people," he said cheerily. "Is my breakfast ready yet?"

"No," replied Dan, "but it's good timing: you can mix these eggs while I make the baked beans and try and figure out the eternal mystery of the universe that is the identity of a whisk..."

"No can do," said James, grinning as he flopped down onto one of the sofas with his back to them. "I'm far too exhausted from my shower. I need some food, stat."

Matt noticed movement behind the counter. Katie had grabbed a pint glass and was filling it with water, while Dan was at the freezer, collecting ice cubes as quietly as he could. Leah was motioning for them to hurry up, while at the same keeping James talking.

"You know," she said, "we all have to pull our own weight here. Sooner or later you're going to have to learn how to cook something."

"I can cook things." James replied, now flicking through the morning newspaper. "Didn't Katie ever tell you about the time I cooked my Geography homework with a magnifying glass?"

Leah laughed. "That's not cooking, that's arson!"

By this point, Dan had deposited the ice cubes into the glass of water, and Katie was now tiptoeing up behind the sofa where James sat. His attention was divided between Leah and the newspaper, so he didn't notice her. The moment she was close enough, Katie leapt forwards and emptied the icy water all over James.

James leapt to his feet, spluttering and gasping. Leah and Dan were killing themselves laughing. The sight of James dancing up and down trying to dislodge the ice cubes from inside his towel tickled Matt, and he found himself laughing again.

Finally calming down, James turned to Katie, who was giggling so hard at her boyfriend's predicament she was struggling to breath.

"Oh ha ha, highly amusing, simply hilarious," he said, the icy water still dripping down his body. "Now give me a hug."

Katie stopped laughing abruptly and, not wanting an icy hug, backed away as James, still dripping cold water, advanced towards her. "No darling, that's alright... no need for that-"

She turned and sprinted away from James, and he gave chase. Unfortunately, there weren't a lot of places to run to, so it ended up with Katie running in circles around the apartment, jumping over furniture, trying to escape from the ever pursuing James, who was shouting "Awe, c'mon baby, where's the love?" Leah had slipped off her stool, and was now convulsing on the ground with laughter. Dan was likewise incapacitated, clinging onto the counter for support. Matt enjoyed a few more seconds of laughter, before he was knocked flying my Katie, and ended up sprawled on the floor.

"Sorry Matt," Katie shouted, before getting cornered by James. As he wrapped his arms around her, she squealed in protest, unable to escape.

As Matt picked himself up, James let go. Katie now looked a real state, with wet patches all the way down her shirt. Matt didn't want to think about how cold it was. Despite everything, Katie was laughing.

"You total jerk!" she giggled. "I'll get you back for this!" Then she gave James a proper hug, already being too wet and cold to care.

*SEVERAL MINUTES AND ONE MINOR FIRE LATER*

The five of them were now sat down on the, Katie and James sitting together on one, Leah and Dan on another, and Matt by himself. They picked at their questionable breakfast and discussed their new cards – the Numbers.

"Well I don't know about you lot," said Katie matter-of-factly, "but my Deck doesn't actually need to be modified to use my Number."

"Same here," replied Dan, picking egg shell out of his teeth for the twenty-fifth time. "Mine fits pretty much perfectly. Honestly, it's like they were designed to fit out Decks."

"Speak for yourself," Leah cut in. "My Deck is mostly made out of Spirits. It's a very anti-Special Summon Deck. What exactly am I supposed to do with an Xyz Monster?"

"Well, maybe it has an effect that will help," James suggested. "What's its effect?"

Leah pulled the card out of her jeans pocket and began to read. "This card cannot be destroyed by battle, except by a Number monster. Neither player can Special Summon monsters. During either player's turn: You can detach..." she trailed off as the penny dropped.

"A card that stops Special Summoning?" Dan said, slightly amused. "Well, that sounds familiar."

"You're right," Leah said, a broad smile spreading across her face. "It's exactly the sort of card I need."

"Well don't stop there," James said. "What about the rest of the effect?"

Leah let out a tiny gasp and carried on reading. "During either player's turn: You can detach 1 Overlay Unit from this card; negate this card's effects until the End Phase." She looked up, puzzled. "I don't get it. What's that good for?"

Dan turned to her. "Don't you see? It's a card with an effect that stops Special Summons, and you have the option to 'switch off' that effect for a turn."

Leah's eyes widened.

"Yep," said James, stealing a piece of bacon from Katie's plate, and earning a punch on the arm for his trouble. "So you can use an Overlay Unit to turn off the effect for a turn while you do any Special Summoning you need to do, then the effect will turn back on again for the next turn."

"This is fantastic!" Leah said gleefully, bouncing on the sofa. "It's absolutely perfect. I want to test it out right now! Someone come with me to test it."

"Now now," Katie scolded her like a fussy mum, "eat your breakfast first. That card will still be there in a few minutes." Leah quickly stuffed a piece of toast into her mouth, and promptly started choking on it. The others laughed as Dan slapped her on the back to try and dislodge it.

Matt, who had barely touched his food, stared at the four people with awe. They were so accepting, so quick to bond with each other and everyone around them, Matt couldn't help but warm to them. So he smiled as Dan managed to dislodge the chewed-up toast from Leah's throat, and laughed with the others when she immediately spat it onto Dan's plate, emotions that he had never felt before slowly welling up inside him.

He was starting to feel at home.


Fun Fact #1: The majority of the funny situations written in this chapter are real-life events that have actually happened to one or more of us. Yes, Dan did almost blow up a microwave with a packet of rice. Yes, James did once redecorate my kitchen with half-blended fruit. Yes, Leah did once choke on a piece of toast and immediately spit it onto the nearest plate that wasn't hers (which happened to be Dan's). Yes, I did once drench James with icy water (although it was from a bucket rather than a glass) and get an icy hug immediately afterwards, the git.

Fun Fact #2: For funny situations like these, we will always attempt to use real-life events from our own lives, because our lives are... eventful.

Fun Fact #3: Yes, I do know what a whisk is. It's that thing roadworkers use to mix cement...